Question:Moving Files from one HDD to another

[magoo]

This is pretty dumb....but what is the fastest way to move files between two mechanical HDD in W7?

I'm going to install a new C drive and besides the OS it has alot of files I don't want to loose.
Other than copy/paste is there some transfer method I don't know about?

Thanks in advance.

 

[staticlag]

You can use robocopy.

It has the benefit of being able to resume if the transfer fails.

Also it has a lot of advanced features.

The good news is it is included in every recent copy of windows.

Here is how to use it:

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc733145.aspx

and if you want a GUI here is one:

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/magazine/2009.04.utilityspotlight.aspx

 

[staticlag]

This is how I use it:

Robocopy P:\FromthisDir Z:\TothisDir /COPY:DAT /E /R:30 /DCOPY:T

It will mirror directory 1 to directory 2, includes all subfolders, will copy the file data, timestamp, attributes, will retry up to 30 times if the transfer fails.

It will create directory 2 if it does not exist, and it will not overwrite existing files as long as they are the same, if they are different it will overwrite them.